Closing the Gap

Writing Assignment C 171

Thomas Barnett states in his article in the March 2003 issue of Esquire that the real reason why he supports a war in Iraq is “the resulting long-term military commitment will finally force America to deal with the entire Gap as a strategic threat environment.” Closing the gap between well globalized or “functioning core” nations and the non-globalized or “non-integrated gap” nations are not solely dependent on just national security in those nations. It has become evident that both economic interaction and national security play a crucial role in globalization. However, national security takes on new meaning in our current global economy. No longer is national security limited to national defense and preparing our military forces. We now must be concerned with securing the international conditions for preserving and enhancing free trade and reducing foreign assistance aid to these non-globalized nations.

It can be argued that foreign assistance hinders development of an undeveloped nation as it prevents the country to grow on its own. Assistance of all kinds is often linked to hidden agenda’s by the giving nation’s political goals and not necessarily the receiving nation’s economic goals or growth. However, free trade helps a country to prosper and reduces poverty in those undeveloped nations. According to Webster Dictionary, “Free trade is a system in which goods, capital, and labor flow freely between nations without barriers that could hinder the trade process.” The idea behind free trade is that it will lower prices for goods and services and help promote competition. For the non globalized nation this means new markets open up as barriers to trading are lifted. Opponents of free trade will argue that it hurts domestic producers by opening up competitions to companies which operates in nations with less stringent labor laws. Labor laws in many developing countries for example, are lenient allowing companies to produce...